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Figures published by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) have revealed that wind has overtaken nuclear power as the third largest energy source in China.

The news comes as China has held on to its lead as the largest wind energy market for the fourth year in a row.

Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

In 2012, China installed an impressive 15.9GW of new wind capacity – which is equal to 35% of the world’s new onshore capacity. Wind power accounts for 5.3% of China’s energy supply – falling behind coal and hydropower.

In total, China has 61GW of cumulative grid-connected wind power capacity.

Demi Zhu, a wind analyst at BNEF, commented: “2012 was a good year for the Chinese wind industry, considering how tough the environment was.

“The industry faced many problems including a reluctance by the grid operator to buy all the intermittent electricity produced by wind farms, plus stricter permitting requirements, unpaid subsidies and vigorous government efforts to cool down the industry’s rate of expansion.”

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Nick Boyle

Nick is responsible for marketing for Apollo Enviro. He also manages and moderates the blog. Connect with Nick on Google+ here.